(Jeff Bosko at North America’s largest and most prestigious Veteran’s tournament – the 2023 Can/Am Veteran’s Cup. Jeff represented Canada on the four-man Sabre team and finished 9th in the individuals. Photos: submitted)
Local sabreist, Jeff Bosko, is looking to earn his spot on Team Canada and make it to the World Veteran Championships in Hong Kong in 2026. Jeff, being 58 years old, would qualify him for the veteran championships which are based on age (40+). He is fairly new to the sport of fencing only starting in 2017. His journey to becoming nationally ranked is one that can be inspirational for anyone and proves what setting goals for yourself and having great determination can do.
Jeff started his fencing journey in 2017 during his battle with cancer. He said, “I wanted to prove that cancer wasn’t going to keep me down from trying a sport I’d always wanted to take up”. The journey started out with him signing up for a local 5-part fencing tournament called the Ottawa District Fencing Circuit that spanned the whole fencing season. His the goal was participating and winning one ribbon “to show myself that I could indeed compete”. He however would not go on to only win one ribbon. Over the next two years, he would win countless ribbons plus gold, silver, and bronze medals.
In his third year competing, a turning point would come for Jeff. Organizers for an event were lacking one sabreist in order to hold bouts in that weapon. Jeff decided to give it a chance and from that moment on he was hooked. He decided to really focus on the sabre and make it his specialty because “It was the fastest and most brutal of the three weapons, and that really intrigued me”. He would go on to enter himself into the ODFC Sabre Championship beating out competitors who were 30 years younger.
Having such great success with the sabre, Jeff decided that he was going to pursue it. Along with the help of his coach, Jon Rennick, he entered the 2023 Can-Am Veterans Cup which is North America’s largest and most prestigious Veterans Tournament. People competing in this tournament included ex-Olympians and competitors from all over the globe. This was Jeff’s first time representing Canada on the world stage. He would go on to place 18th out of 40 competitors and take home fourth overall in the 4-man team event. This would prove to himself that he could hang with the top competition and with more training he could end up being one of the better sabreists in the world for his age category.
This brings us to the present day where Jeff is now looking to represent Canada in Hong Kong for the World Veteran Championships in 2026. Team Canada takes four competitors and Jeff is currently ranked sixth nationally. He has time, however, to make up that gap and get himself a spot on Team Canada with upcoming events such as the Can-Am Cup in May, the Provincial Championships in June, and Nationals next year. In all of these events, he can earn points to climb up the leaderboard and hopefully earn himself a spot to go to Hong Kong.
I asked Jeff what it would be like to make it to Hong Kong? “To be a Nationally ranked fencer who represents Canada internationally and is within reach of being able to compete on the World stage is truly a surreal feeling – it is an opportunity that I am training for every day to achieve. It would be an absolute honor and privilege to represent my country in front of the world,” said Jeff humbly.
For more information on Jeff and to follow along with his story you can follow him on X/Twitter @Kundun66.